Learning from the Lost Customer

I'm pretty proud of the fact that we rarely lose clients. Sure, we have a percentage of clients who are purely driven by price, and they bounce around from time to time. For the most part though, we intensely care about the relationship we have with clients and we try to be creative and intentional about the service we provide. Recently however, I lost a client because they were disappointed in the experience they had with me. I thought it might be constructive to journal the experience, as it might give pause to other business owners and be an opportunity for us all to reflect. From time to time, all of us will screw up, but how can we gain something from such a downer as losing a client?

In this particular situation, I was really fortunate to get very detailed, candid feedback as to why they were leaving me. I had to beg for it, but they eventually sent me a lengthy email detailing their dissatisfaction. Here's a sanitized excerpt from the email (so as to protect the identities of the innocent:) This makes for a long blog post, but hopefully you can learn with me from the situation.

"Per your request, here is some detailed feedback. Note that I have no real reason to spend the time doing this, other than that I have managed people for the last 14 years and know how hard it is to get (or give) honest feedback. Maybe you will return the favor to someone else someday. Note also that I did not share any of this with [other agent].

We select the people we choose to do business with, not the other way around. We have longstanding relationships (>10 years) with our dentist, eye doctor, doctor, dental hygienist, hair stylist, etc. In contrast, you were picked for us, replacing someone who we knew well and were quite pleased with.

A big negative for me during our meeting was when you volunteered that you started the cartridge refill store in Corvallis. As you knew, my [spouse] and I are long time HP employees. We both work very hard to make HP as successful as possible. Our livelihood depends on HP doing well. HP drives much of the economy in Corvallis. Refilling businesses like this one negatively impact our company and our compensation. I would suggest you not volunteer this to your customers from HP. Note that [other agent's] office was full of HP equipment and [his/her] former employer was [high-end service oriented retailer] - a much better fit for us.

My son appreciated many aspects of his "New Driver" talk, but was quite surprised (as was I) that you volunteered how many bad things you personally did as a teen in Corvallis. He thought it was weird and hypocritical that his insurance agent did things he wouldn't even dream of doing. I would suggest that you tell stories about what your "friends" did, not you. You need to preserve your credibility as an adult and as an insurance agent.

I know you are supposed to try to sell financial products, but you should have assumed based on our professions that we were already well set in this area and didn't need anything from State Farm. You should have either dropped this very quickly, or not even brought it up. You should not have asked me to refer people to you who might be interested in financial products. I had absolutely no reason or motivation to do this.

The above left me with the impression that you weren't very mature and didn't have the best of judgment. These are 2 personality traits we value in our insurance agent. We are more comfortable choosing to do business with [other agent] and hope [he/she] is our agent for many years to come. Nonetheless, I hope you find this feedback helpful towards building a successful business in Corvallis.

Not sure how it reads to the detached third-party reader, but it hit me like a punch in the gut. One of those moments where you're overcome with embarrassment, then a bit of defensiveness, disappointment, and finally clarity. A bit of context for the above comments:

Regarding us being forced on them- this is true. We inherited their business from the outgoing agent. I understand this comment/criticism. Frankly, I feel like every day we interact with our clients, we have to earn their business. At the end of the day, they get to decide where to spend their money.

The angst over me disclosing having started the cartridge refilling store (Rapid Refill Ink) I get as well. I could have been more diplomatic, and completely omitted that business from my personal introduction. On the other hand, having run other businesses in the past, it's part of my story and body of knowledge and experience. I suppose the takeaway from this is, the first impression is a delicate moment. Better to proceed carefully and thoughtfully and over time become more vulnerable and candid.

The "New Driver" talk. This was a good gut-check as well. Helpful to put it in context though. I do a new driver talk with all of my young clients that are just getting their driver's licenses. Generally mom or dad come in with them, but the conversation is between me and the new driver. I present them with important things to consider regarding safety, how tickets or accidents affect their rates, and other critical topics around this new responsibility they're taking on.

I've done a handful of these talks, and I try to at least mention a couple stories of my own driving experiences or failings as a young driver. I am careful not to glorify my past foolishness, but rather present it in a regretful tone, highlighting the consequences I experienced and how the outcomes could have been much more tragic. My intent with including my stories into the new driver talk, was to engage them with real examples and help them make a connection between my actions and the very real consequences that followed.

However, after mulling over the clients feedback, I've come to a couple conclusions. First, my approach could be an effective and powerful one for some teens.(And I believe it has been for many I've talked with) Unfortunately, I think it's possible it might actually may be a stumbling block for some, maybe even making the teen more brazen like "my agent did stupid stuff when he was young, and it eventually worked out alright. Driving isn't really that serious of a deal. I'm not going to kill anyone". This is obviously the last impression, or takeaway I want to give my young clients. Secondly, being a younger agent, there's really not enough separation between myself and my young drivers. If I were a 50 yr old agent, this approach would probably be an okay one, given the expanse of time between my youthful folly and my current behavior and position. So, a good lesson learned. Time to re-tool the new driver talk.

Now, on the sales comment. This comment from the client kind of threw me a bit. I don't even recall the context. One thing that I can't help but zero in on, is this comment [he/she] made:

"you should have assumed based on our professions that we were already well set in this area and didn't need anything from [large national insurance company]"

This to me, is an unfair judgment. I'm of the thinking that as a licensed professional, it's critical I make no assumptions as to my clients level of savvy and planning. Doing so can (and has before) ended badly. The reality is, I've got many clients with PhD's and MBA's that rely on our judgment and expertise to help them make good decisions as it relates to our industry and products.

I do however, have a good takeaway from this feedback, and it centers around expectations. Without unpacking our philosophy a bit, our questions may seem outside the scope of service they expected. Most people are not accustomed to their insurance agency taking the kind of wholistic approach we try to take.

Now however, when we bring on a new client, we let them know how we approach our role as their agent, and what they can expect from us. Hopefully this will help us avoid people getting the wrong impression.

Finally (You can all breath a sigh of relief), the client's summary about my maturity and judgment- I think they assumed a lot from one 45 minute interaction from me. I'll let the verdict sit with those that know me best, and suffice it to say, all of us have room for growth and personal development, no matter where we are at in our career and achievement.

So, a bit long, but hopefully constructive for those who decided to read it. The moral of the story is that greater self-awareness is essential for a successful entrepreneur, and it only comes from reflection and periodic bits of candid feedback.